Love Me if You Dare: Pristine Darkness

An Yan’s Side Story – The Honey Peach is in My Hands (Part 1)

An Yan stood by the flowerbed. He felt like the moon in some distant, remote place, harried and obscured by dark clouds*. Who could understand how he felt?

*T/N Shout out to the wonderful Minodayz, who tracked down this reference (of a distant moon) to a Tang Dynasty poem, 女冠子·四月十七

Before his eyes was this picture —

The light was dim. A few metres away from him, among the flowers, stood a pair of beautiful people. The man was tall, and his shirt and suit looked good. The woman was even more beautiful and alluring, incomparably so.

The man said, “Fangfang, I really love you. I have loved you for four years. I was prepared to confess to you, but you are telling everyone that you now have a police officer as a boyfriend . . .”

Gu Fangfang responded, “Since you know I have a boyfriend, why on earth did you look for me?”

By the side, An Yan cracked a small smile.

However, the man was unwilling to accept this. The dissatisfaction and stubbornness of someone who had not gotten his way was written all over his elegant face. “But, Fangfang! None of us have ever seen that man before! Even if he is a police officer, how is it possible that we’ve not even caught a glimpse of him for the past one or two years? I’ve read on the Internet about these swindlers who pretend to be police officers, but are really destitute good-for-nothing cheats who want to trick you into handing over your possessions and your body! This is the kind of man you put your faith in!”

These remarks completely floored Gu Fangfang. An Yan had indeed left as he said he would, and had vanished for a year. Moreover, he really did look like someone who had not a penny to his name. But, how could he ever be a liar? He had been responsible for monitoring all the surveillance in the cosplay case!

“Don’t talk nonsense . . .” Gu Fangfang began, when she unexpectedly heard a familiar and cold voice from behind her, saying very stiffly, “You are the liar!”

Gu Fangfang was both shocked and delighted as she turned to see the face she had been longing for. However, because it had been so long since they had seen each other, when she saw his face, it felt unfamiliar. After all, nothing had happened between them before he had left. Not even a kiss. But, she had subconsciously defended him, waited for him, and told everyone he was her boyfriend. When she considered that An Yan might know about this, Gu Fangfang’s face turned a rosy red in a split second.

However, since it was night time, An Yan was unable to notice this. In any case, his attention was fully focused on this stinking joker who was trying to pull the rug out from under his feet and undermine his position*. The joker had never expected that An Yan would suddenly appear like this and his shock and discomfort showed on his face.

*T/N 撬墙角 (qiao qiang jiao) – literally, to pry open the corner (junction between two walls). Figuratively, it refers to having the rug pulled from under your feet, or the strategy of targeting or eliminating the people close to your opponent, in order to derive the greatest benefit for yourself.

“You clearly knew that the other party has a boyfriend, yet you still tried to weasel your way in and shake up our relationship. Your intentions are base, and your loyalty is in question. You knew nothing about me, yet you concluded the worst about me and sullied my name. This shows that you either lack judgement and blindly conform to the majority, or you are willing to engage in any means necessary, whether fair or foul, in order to achieve your goal – to deceive Fangfang. No matter what the reason, you are not worthy to have any interaction with Fangfang.”

Whether for good or for bad, as someone who had been with Bo Jinyan for several years, even when An Yan spoke carelessly, there was logic to his words. These words had such an impact that Gu Fangfang saw the expression on that man’s face change. She even stepped back half a pace to stay close to An Yan. The young man was furious; he never imagined that An Yan would be a master of eloquence. He scoffed and retorted, “I am not worthy to interact with Gu Fangfang? Then let me ask you, you small-fry police officer, I am a graduate of a Project 211 university*, what about you? Does your academic record compare to mine? Can you bring Fangfang happiness?”

*T/N Project 211 was initiated in 1995 by China’s Ministry of Education to raise the research standards of high-level universities and develop strategies for social-economic development. It would be fairly prestigious to be a graduate of a university under Project 211. Read more about it here.

Gu Fangfang’s expression had changed again and she was just about to intervene. To her surprise, the man by her side coolly spoke up. “Computing at Tsinghua University*, direct Masters.”

*T/N You can read more about Tsinghua University’s standing here, but suffice to say that An Yan trumps (absolutely, totally, utterly) his poor love rival.

His love rival was speechless.

Gu Fangfang was speechless.

His love rival said, “Liar! You’re just talking big!”

With an indifferent expression, An Yan fished out his cellphone and carelessly pressed a few keys before showing him the screen. The man was instantly stuck dumb – An Yan had really brought up a picture of his Tsinghua University student identification card! There was only one thought that flashed across the man’s mind – his movements are so fast!

Gu Fangfang looked at An Yan with a complexity of emotions – she had always thought he was an ordinary police academy graduate, and never imagined that he was a super student! When she thought about it carefully, she had never asked him about his background because she placed no value on any of these things.

That man was still reluctant to leave things as they were. He flushed and said bitingly, “What’s so great about graduating from Tsinghua University? Graduates from Peking University can’t find jobs and have to sell pork in the market! When I graduated, I started working in my family’s company, and I have an apartment and a car in Beijing. What do you have? You’re still allowing Fangfang to live in this little rental apartment!”

Gu Fangfang had had enough. “You shut up! An Yan, don’t pay any attention to him . . .” An Yan squeezed her hand. He was hardly bothered by such sneers and jeers. Having been with Bo Jinyan for so long, his words could be even colder and more heartless than such common folk! He also sneered, then pondered the possible countermeasures. He retrieved his wallet from his pocket, took out a card and shoved it into Gu Fangfang’s hand. “This card contains the prize money I have won over the past few years, about 1 million yuan (approx USD 142,000). If it’s not enough, I will make time next year to take part in some competitions.”

His love rival was once again speechless.

Gu Fangfang said, “ . . . There’s no need, I . . .”

The love rival could not restrain himself any longer. He felt that there was no way he could hold a conversation with An Yan. Feeling humiliated and indignant, he said loudly, “So what? I have a family company, you are nothing but a Small-fry. Criminal. Investigator. Who. Checks. And. Monitors. Things!”

Gu Fangfang blew up. “So what? Even if he’s a small-fry criminal investigator who checks and monitors things, I like him and I don’t like you! Get lost! I don’t want to see you again!”

An Yan blinked rapidly. In his eyes, under the raging temper, he could only see his girlfriend who was even more beautiful and adorable with her crimson cheeks. Gu Fangfang was more overbearing than he was. Without giving that man another look, she grabbed An Yan’s hand and said, “Let’s go!”

An Yan said, “Ok.”

The man they left behind felt his heart finally break into smithereens. As he stood in the wind, his heartache was so great that he longed for death.

Finally calmed down, Gu Fangfang and An Yan sat, shoulder to shoulder, on a bench on the ground floor of a building in the neighbourhood. The night breeze blew gently. Both of them felt a little shy and did not speak.

After a while, Gu Fangfang asked, “When did you get back?”

He answered, “Just now.”

Gu Fangfang looked down, pursed her lips and remained silent.

“Have you finished what you were doing?” she asked again, full of hope.

An Yan felt a twinge of pain in his chest as he replied, “Soon.”

Of course, Gu Fangfang did not know of the danger and sinister nature of the case. When she heard him saying he would be done soon, she sighed in relief and smiled before saying, “I’ve never seen you the way you were tonight.” Showing off your ability, not yielding an inch.

An Yan said, matter-of-factly, “Before, I never realised that there was someone trying to take away what is mine.”

Gu Fangfang’s face heated up. She turned her head, only to find An Yan’s serene, black eyes staring at her. “Are there . . . many people like him?”

“Hmmmm . . . I rejected eight people this year,” she said truthfully.

An Yan’s eyes darkened.

Gu Fangfang really wanted to laugh, but held it in.

Who knew, in the very next second, he had grasped her shoulders and bowed his head to kiss her.

This was . . . their first kiss.

A man’s fresh and clean breath is just like moonlight, like tree leaves, like a cool breeze. However, there was also the power and passion peculiar to young men. He was obviously inexperienced, but this was something he had longed desired, so his long, slender fingers which normally danced across a keyboard grasped her chin firmly while kissing her over and over again, clearly wanting to take as much as he could. His other hand was unconsciously resting on Gu Fangfang’s shoulder, from where it moved to pull her tight against him. Gu Fangfang’s face was totally red, and her eyes were moist. When he finally released her, he asked softly, “Did you feel it?”

Gu Fangfang whispered, “Why do you have to ask this kind of question?”

An Yan looked at her very seriously and said, “My boss says to always pay attention to the feelings of the girl, and the method that is the most precise and least open to misinterpretation is to ask directly.”

Gu Fangfang rolled her eyes. “Your boss is really strange!” And then, softly, “This kind of thing, just feeling it is fine.”

An Yan thought for a moment, then smiled. “True. I felt good, what about you?” Gu Fangfang hit him, and smiled.